Corrections Assistant Arrested for Fraud and Grand Theft

Published May 28th, 2009

An employee with the Marion County Sheriff's Office has been arrested after allegedly stealing money from an 89-year-old's bank account.
Sharon Wagoner, a 55-year-old from Ocala, was arrested, and she denied any wrongdoing. Wagoner has been employed with the sheriff's office since Aug. 1, 2004 as a corrections assistant and is on unpaid suspension until a staff review is complete.
Deloris Tyska reported on Jan. 31 that her stepfather, 89-year-old Harry Devore, had been exploited of a large sum of money from his bank account.
Tyska stated that in 2007 the victim’s account had $40,000 in it; since then, several checks have been written out to cash and the recent balance was only $9,000.
When the victim was questioned about the checks and money missing, he became distraught and had no memory of any money transactions, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Further investigation revealed that a neighbor, Wagoner, who lives across the street, stated that she would on occasion cook and clean for Devore and even took the victim out to eat from time to time.
She also admitted to purchasing groceries for the victim with his money and believed that his mental capacity was fine, according to the sheriff's office.
Wagoner admitted to taking cash gifts from the victim, and detectives identified checks made on her behalf totaling $10,454.93. There are numerous other checks written out to cash over an 18-month span of time that are still unaccounted for.
Family members of Devore located evidence that the victim had been keeping a ledger of checks paid out to Wagoner, as though he had loaned her money and that was his way of keeping track of the transactions.
Wagoner was charged with organized fraud and grand theft from a person over 65.